| How to play marbles
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How to play marbles
History – before you go for how to play marbles
Marbles are often miniature works of art. We take them for granted because they are so common, but some of them are little masterpieces of glasswork. Children were playing marbles as long ago as 4000 BC in Ancient Egypt, and the game has fallen in and out of fashion ever since. Nobody knows which games the Egyptians played with their marbles. In fact, nobody knows which games were played in more recent times, because they have never been written down and you might, by now, have started thinking about how to play marbles.
Marbles is a game that is more than 3000 years old. Clay marbles have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs. Later the Romans were to play marbles. On the other side of the Atlantic archaeologists have found marbles in Mexico and parts of the USA dating back to 100 BC. In 1560 Pieter Brueghel painted children playing marbles. By the 19th Century marbles were being mass produced. Originally marbles were made of many kinds of materials - clay, bone, polished nuts and stones, and indeed marble. Now most marbles are made of glass.
Nevertheless, marble games continue to be a tradition to this day. The games we play nowadays can be as simple or as complicated as we\'d like.
The game featured in this article is called "Bull\'s Eye" Things .
Easy steps to how to play marbles
You’ll need:
• Chalks
• 6 - 10 Feet Of String
Step 1: Draw a circle 2 to 3 feet wide. Use chalk on asphalt or concrete, a stick in dirt, or a string on carpet or tile.
Step 2: Select your shooter and place any marbles you wish to play with as targets inside the circle; the other players do the same. Shooters are designated marbles used to knock targets out of the ring. Your shooter should be larger than the other marbles so it\'s powerful enough to do its job. It should also look different from other marbles so you can distinguish it from them easily. This is important if you want to learn how to play marbles.
Step 3: Take your turn when the time comes by shooting your marble from outside the ring at any marble or marbles inside the ring. Shoot by kneeling on the ground and flicking your marble out of your fist with your thumb.
Step 4: Gather any marbles you\'ve knocked out of the ring.
Step 5: Shoot again if you knocked any marbles out of the ring. Let the next player shoot if you haven\'t knocked any marbles out and/or your shooter remains in the ring.
Step 6: Continue shooting in turn until the ring is empty.
Step 7: Count your marbles at the end of the game. The winner is the player with the most marbles.
Step 8: Return the marbles to their original owners unless you\'re playing \'keepsies.\' In that case, each player keeps the marbles he or she won during the game.
Some other ways on how to play marbles
There are many games using marbles, some are very old. They break down into two types - ones in which you try to knock your opponent\'s marbles with your own (and so win them) and ones in which you try to hit a target, eg roll your marble through a hoop or into a hole.
You do this by rolling, throwing or knuckling your marble.
Knuckling space: The marble is flicked by the thumb out of the hand.
Taw - This is the game which is being played in the photograph above. The aim is to hit your opponent\'s marbles out of the circle. Sometimes the circle can be as large as 10 feet (3 metres) across.
Cherry pit - In this game you try to roll marbles into holes in the ground. Cherry pit was described by Shakespeare.
Nineholes - In this game of skill you try to fire your marble through numbered arches and so earn points.
How to play marbles >
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